Russia recently fired additional North Korean ballistic missiles into Ukraine following earlier such launches, a White House official said Tuesday, reiterating the arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang violate multiple U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, disclosed Russia’s additional missile strikes at the war-torn country, while noting its earlier launches of North Korean missiles on Dec. 30, Jan. 2 and Saturday last week.
“Since then, Russian forces again launched multiple North Korean ballistic missiles into Ukraine,” Kirby told a press briefing. “We are still assessing the impacts of these strikes, but we can confirm that at least one of them landed in Kharkiv.”
Last Thursday, Kirby announced that the North recently provided Russia with several dozen ballistic missiles as well as ballistic missile launchers.
Kirby said that Washington will discuss the arms transfers between the North and Russia at the UNSC
on Wednesday.
“Russia’s transfer of ballistic missiles from the DPRK directly violates multiple UNSC resolutions,” he said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Tomorrow, we will raise these arms deals at the UNSC alongside our allies and partners and demand that Russia be held accountable for yet again violating international obligations that it signed up to,” he added.
Meanwhile, top diplomats from nearly 50 countries, including South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, issued a joint statement condemning in the “strongest terms” the arms transfers between the North and Russia.
“The transfer of these weapons increases the suffering of the Ukrainian people, supports Russia’s war of aggression, and undermines the global non-proliferation regime,” the statement read.
“We are deeply concerned about the security implications that this cooperation has in Europe, on the Korean Peninsula, across the Indo-Pacific region, and around the world,” it added.
Source: Yonha
p News Agency
